#the ivory key

[bookishlyvintage]

Stack Challenge: I is for....

Invisible Life of Addie Larue

Ink in the Blood

Immortalists

In the Lives of Puppets

Isn't it Bromantic?

Ivory Key

#stack challenge #book stack #ignore the luminaries #in my mind #its illuminaries #ink in the blood #the invisible life of addie larue #the immortalists #in the lives of puppets #isnt it bromantic #the ivory key #books #reading #bookblr #booklr

[caribeandthebooks]

Caribe's YA Fantasy & Science Fiction TBR - Part 3

#the ivory key #akshaya raman #book tumblr #booklr #bookblr #books #book blog #young adult fantasy #young adult #little thieves #margaret owen #mortal engines #philip reeve #who could that be at this hour? #lemony snicket #leviathan #scott westerfeld #the book of koli #m.r. carey

[plantdad-dante]

Book #138 - The Crimson Fortress by Akshaya Raman

(probably the only book with "published first draft" vibes that I would pay actual money to read a re-do of)

So, uh... what the shit happened?

Don't get me wrong, the first half of this book was fine. Maybe stumbling a bit, here and there, but The Ivory Key did, too, so, like... it's fine. Especially because fuck, was I looking forward to this! And then...

And then the pacing just started picking up speed and kept getting faster and faster and faster, until the details, the descriptions, the explanations, the transitions, the character beats, disappeared from the page and it was just action, just plot, like a fucking summary-

Okay. To maybe illustrate what I mean, an example. There is a chapter, close to the climax, that is about 1.5 pages long (for the last ~100 pages, the chapters shorten from about 8-15 pages to 1-4 pages. Feel like that's important to mention) and it's from Ronak's perspective. In it,

- he sees his sister faint - he registers that there are no further traps in the room, other than the thing that made Vira faint and that seems to have been a one-time thing - he knicks The McGuffin (that he had given to Vira in the first place, so why even- ugh) from Vira - he decides to just carry her, because they need to continue their search for The Villain and hopefully she'll wake up on the way? - he hears and then sees The Villain's Goons draw near and realizes he can't hide - he decides to throw the McGuffin he just knicked at the enemies as a distraction, so that he has time to run? (btw, this is the last McGuffin the bad guys need to complete the Evil Plan and Ronak knows that, ffs) - he flees, carries Vira to safety - Vira wakes up and he tells her that he gave away the McGuffin

... in one and a half pages. And this isn't a dense, 6-point font kinda book. This is a normal, standard YA formatted book.

The fact that Ronak gave away the McGuffin never leads to conflict, btw. The next Vira chapter does not start with her yelling at him. It does not feature a fight, or even a discussion, or at least a mention of what Ronak did. It is just accepted, and then not mentioned again, like Ronak didn't do something extremely short-sighted and dumb, yet a-fucking-gain.

Also, Kaleb is just kind of a non-entity in the final showdown? Like, he has the Secret Weapon to Deafeat The Villain, and he hands it over to a very hurt Vira, who limps across the room to get it from him, so she can then limp back to the somehow still distracted Villain to defeat her?? And that's all he does, that's his entire contribution to the fight. We don't even get to know where he is in the room. So basically, Kaleb just stands there, paralysed by things outside his control, watching his siblings do their usual things (Riya - be rebellious and combative, Vira - be the one chosen to do the important bit, Ronak - get himself into danger for nothing but ego) and honestly, it's like nothing changed at all between these... ... Actually, I will just choose not to read into that scene any further, if it's all the same to you.

Speaking of Kaleb, I loved his character arc (and he does have one, even if it's a bit tell-don't-show, due to the pacing problem), but it wouldn't have hurt to actually see Lukas in the denouement. Just a bit. A glimpse. A line. A presence. Or am I asking too much. Like, when Lukas was introduced and Kaleb and him started exhibiting romantic tension, I was hyped, because the blackmailing thing had so much juicy angst potential, and then it just kinda- ugh.

And the worst thing is that I can't even dislike this book! Because the imagination that I loved in The Ivory Key was still there! There is, very clearly, a lot of coherency and thought behind this story. The characters and their relationships and the plot make sense. And they stay consistent throughout. It's just that... for about 150 pages, suddenly this lavishly described, evocative world gets stripped to its bones, as if the clock is running out and it is only conveying bullet points to me anymore, because it wants to get to the end before the bell rings. And then the denouement is completely normal again, as if nothing happened. As if I fucking hallucinated this skeleton of a third act.

Ugh, what I wouldn't give to read a version of this that's... well, actually finished. Hm.

#the ivory key #the crimson fortress #akshaya raman #wow i read the ivory key a whole 100 books ago #damn how time flies

[readingrobin]

I'm still trying to get the hang of the whole "posting content" thing, but I think providing a reading wrap-up every month will allow me a little more to work with. January was a fairly standard reading month. I was able to get through ten books, though I added quite a few to my TBR. Kind of had a mini heart attack when I realized that, according to my Storygraph, I have about 1,731 titles on there. Well, at least I know I'll never run short of reading material.

Total Books Read: 10

Total Pages Read: 3,689

Books Read:

The Devil Aspect by Craig Russell - (Review) (3.5/5)

Sweep: The Story of a Girl and Her Monster by Jonathan Auxier - All I have to say is that the best kind of children's fiction tends to be the ones that expertly balance the harsh cruelties of life, especially during the Victorian era, with an unshakable sense of hope and a lot of heart. Sweep is one of those books that doesn't shy away from the reality and history of children in peril, but there is a warmness in its pages that comes from feeling and seeing the love and protection of dear ones long since passed. Definitely a bit of a tearjerker, but in a good way. (4/5)

The Kingdom of Back by Marie Lu - (Review) (4/5)

Property of the Rebel Librarian by Allison Varnes - Looking at the world around us, this book couldn't be more relevant, as book bans are sweeping across schools and kids are left without a choice in what they want to read. Though it presents a somewhat simplistic scenario of censorship gone wild, it's definitely meant as an accessible way for young readers to be introduced to the process of book banning and what can be done to make your voice heard. (4/5)

Season of the Bruja Vol. 1 by Aaron Duran and Sara Soler - A really beautiful graphic novel that highlights the conflict of surviving indigenous traditions vs. religious colonialism. Stories that point out the hypocrisy and brutality of the Catholic church scratch such a good itch for me. The world is a little shaky though, not much is exactly explained and you almost need some prior knowledge of Mexican mythology going in, but it's worth checking out. (3/5)

A Winter's Promise by Christelle Dabos - (Review) (4/5)

Such Sharp Teeth by Rachel Harrison - (Review) (4/5)

The Ivory Key by Akshaya Raman - Though it takes a while to get going, The Ivory Key does have a great readability to it as the action finally kicks in about maybe halfway through. Up until then, the book spends a great deal laying the foundation of this world: tensions between cities, the role and history of magic in this society, the dynamics of the main characters. I will say, being introduced to at least seven different important characters in the span of 30 pages is a tad overwhelming at first, but it levels out the more you keep reading. While I did enjoy it, there was nothing particularly exemplary about the story that wowed me. The Indian-inspired setting and mythology makes it stand out, but everything else used the same tropes, beats, and twists that I've seen time and time over with little to add to them. I liked it enough to want to read the second book coming out later this year, but probably not enough to keep it on my personal shelf. (3/5)

Black Panther: The Young Prince by Ronald L. Smith - Read this one in a day and was fairly satisfied with it. It'll definitely appeal to middle grade readers looking for Marvel tie-in stories, as it has a quick pace and a good amount of action and mystery. For me, I don't think I enjoyed it enough to continue with the sequel, but it was nice to see a younger T'Challa and M'Baku out of their element away from Wakanda and how dynamic changed over the course of the book. (3/5)

Scavenge the Stars by Tara Sim - For a book inspired by The Count of Monte Cristo, the story itself was incredibly simple and told fairly straight-forwardly, but I think that works in its favor. I'm at the point where I'm starting to tire of long-winded society dramas so I appreciated it for having a bit of focus. Everyone's motivation is clear, with a natural twist or two popping up along the way, plus a great amount of casual queerness. Though the world-building wasn't exactly intricate, there is a good sense of aesthetic and personality in the setting of Moray from its high status venues to the seedy gambling dens. I'm interested to see where the story goes in the sequel! (3.5/5)

Average Rating: (3.6/5)

#robin's book log #reading wrap up #book wrap up #the devil aspect #sweep: the story of a girl and her monster #the kingdom of back #property of the rebel librarian #season of the bruja #a winter's promise #such sharp teeth #the ivory key #black panther the young prince #scavenge the stars

[jsalim-art]

Gonna start my next book in my TBR pile!

This time another book from my Owl Crate subscription that I am finally sitting down to reading. From the look the synopsis is dealing with 4 royal siblings who are estranged having the same goal but keeping secrets from each other. This could either end well or bad *nervous laughter*

#tbrbusterchallenge2023 #bookbanditchallenge #the ivory key #akshaya raman #jehan reads a bunch of books

[joncronshawauthor]

22 Unmissable Fantasy Books of 2022: Your Ultimate Guide

Another year, another towering pile of epic fantasy books hitting the shelves. Let’s shine a spotlight on 22 brilliant fantasy novels from 2022 that you simply mustn’t miss. No tedious prologues here, just top-notch action, imagination, and maybe the odd goblin who meets the business end of a battleaxe. Babel by R.F. Kuang In this dark academia fantasy, students at a university hold dangerous…

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#2022 fantasy novels #All the Murmuring Bones #Babel #best fantasy books 2022 #Book recommendations #dark fantasy #epic fantasy #fantasy book review #God of Gnomes #high seas fantasy #Kingdom of Exiles #Lions and Traitors #magical realism #Storm Weaver #The Blood Tartan #The Book Eaters #The Compass Rose #The Cursed Titans #The Hourglass Throne #The Ivory Key #The Mirror Season #The Obsidian Tower #The Oleander Sword #The Paradox Hotel #The Price of Magic #The Resurrectionist #The Rise of the Red Hand #The Sea Between #The Soul Keepers #top reads 2022

[melanielocke]

Book recommendations: can't wait for the next book

A while back I did a post with complete series. This time I figured I'd do a post with a couple of series that have another book coming in 2023 instead. Or, well, presumably 2023, since for some of them I'm not 100% sure about when the next book is coming out, but if I do know I'll list it. I also considered putting Legendborn in here, but I don't own Legendborn, my sister does and at the time of taking this picture I didn't have access to her books, that series would fit this category too. Let me know if there are any other sequels you're waiting for! This certainly isn't all of mine, but I picked a couple of books that I hadn't covered yet (and one I am repeating, but bear with me)

First up is the Ivory Key by Akshaya Raman. The Ivory Key is the first book in a duology and is set in a world inspired by India. This country depends on magic to protect itself from foreign invaders, but they keep magic in a vault underneath the palace and it is running out. Vira is the Queen of Ashoka and is desperate for solution. She discovers that there are more vaults with magic, locked by the ivory key that she'll have to find. Desperate, she asks her siblings for help. They agree, but each have their own motivation for wanting to find the key. While Vira wants to save her country, Ronak wants to sell the key to the highest bidder to escape a political marriage and their younger sister Riya wants to give the key to the rebels to prove her loyalty to them. Their oldest half brother Kaleb was falsely imprisoned for murdering the former queen, and needs it to prove his innocence. The book has a quest to find this key and four siblings who are all working together but also against each other for their own goals and splits its POVs between the four siblings.

The book shown on the picture is the UK edition and the US edition has a different cover. Book 2, the Crimson Fortress, comes out 1 August 2023.

Next I have the Hollow Star Saga by Ashley Shuttleworth. There are currently two books out in this series which are a Dark and Hollow Star and a Cruel and Fated Light.

This series is set in modern day Toronto and features a world with fae courts that hide themselves from humans. It follows four main characters who end up tangled up in te same mystery.

Arlo is an ironborn, a half fae whose mother is a princess in the most important royal family of fae, but because she's half human she is an outcast in her family.

Nausicaa is an ex fury who was cast out of the immortals for killing a bunch of people, known as the dark star.

Vehan is the prince of the Seelie Summer Court, which is a different royal family than Arlo's from. He is dutiful, but naive and has no idea that his mother is evil.

Aurelian is Vehan's best friend and body guard, whose relationship with Vehan is strained because of a secret he has to keep.

The first book follows these characters as they investigate a series of ironborn murders no one else seems to care about. Vehan especially is passionate about finding the culprit, whereas Nausicaa is only really helping out because people are “—runnin’ around accusing perfectly innocent assholes of assholery they’ve been actively trying to avoid.” as said by Nausicaa in the book. Seriously, she's hilarious. Things get a lot more intense in book two, which I won't give too much away about. Book 2 also adds Celadon to the main cast (he was already important in book 1 but gets a POV in book 2)

All the major characters in this book are queer, with Arlo being questioning, Nausicaa's a lesbian, Vehan's bisexual and Aurelian's gay.

The next book is a Grim and Sunken Vow and is scheduled for fall 2023, but the exact date is as of yet unknown. After that there will be one more book.

I know I've already talked about the Sunbearer Trials but this book is so great it bears repeating.

I already summarized the story, a group of semidioses doing a competition where the loser dies, so I figured I'd talk a little more abot my favorite character Aurelio. Aurelio is the son of Lumbre, diosa of fire, and has a twin sister Auristela. Most people don't really like Auristela since she is not very nice and needs to be the best at everything, but Aurelio is really close with his sister. As a child he was really shy and awkward and he ended up befriending Teo but at some point he kind of stopped talking to Teo so now they're awkward ex friends. Aurelio is very dutiful and literal and sometimes I feel like he might be autistic. He is also Teo's love interest though that is something that develops slowly.

If you haven't read this book yet, I'd seriously recommend it. Book 2, which should be the last one, is as of yet untitled and has no release date. It currently says 2023 but I can't guarantee it'll be published that year. I sure hope so though, with how the last one ended.

A Blade so Black is a little older than the other books here, but for some reason it took a while for the third book to come out, I'm not completely sure what happened here. There are currently two books out, a Blade so Black and a Dream so Dark. I have the UK editions but I'm honestly not sure if there will be a UK edition of book 3 since there was so much time between the last release and this one, so if you're very passionate about having a matching set I'd recommend getting the US hardcovers as the third book will release in that edition.

This trilogy is a retelling of Alice in Wonderland in which Alice is a modern day bi Black girl living in Atlanta, juggling her strict and protective mother and a high maintenance best friend with her secret job of killing nightmares, which are monsters born from wonderland that slip into our world. When her mentor Hatta (who I'm pretty sure is supposed to be the Mad Hatter) gets poisoned, Alice has to go deeper into wonderland than she's ever been to find a cure. In the olden days, a lot of YA contemporary fantasy books were very vague about the role of parents. Lots of parents who had no clue what there kids were up to also didn't really pay attention and just let them do whatever? To be fair, that could have been my parents. But for a lot of people and that was not very realistic. Alice' mom is very protective, and for good reason, but does not know what's going on in Alice' life and Alice regularly has to make excuses for her absences or have her best friend Courtney cover for her and the books balance the adventures in Wonderland quite well with Alice having to keep up her normal teenage life.

The third book, a Crown so Cursed will 11 April 2023

Last but not least is the Gilded Ones trilogy, with currently two books out, the Gilded Ones and the Merciless Ones.

Deka lives in a small village in a very misogynistic world where at her sixteenth birthday, she will be checked for the color of her blood to see if she is pure or not. When her blood runs gold, she knows she will be killed. Only Deka doesn't die. In fact, the villagers kill her many different ways and every time Deka wakes up, until a woman travels to her village and offers her the choice to come with her and fight in an army of alaki, girls like her who are near immortal.

But nothing is quite as it seems, not even what Deka believes is the greatest threat to her country.

This book is an interesting fantasy that focused primarily on misogynie from the POV of a Black woman (although racism as we know it isn't really a thing in this world). In the second book, there is also some exploration of rad fem/terf ideology and how simply hating and turning against all men/amab people is not a good way of dealing with oppression, and one of the older alaki is revealed to be a trans woman.

@alastaircarstairsdefenselawyer @life-through-the-eyes-of @astriefer @justanormaldemon @ipromiseiwillwrite @a-dream-dirty-and-bruised @amchara @all-for-the-fanfiction @imsoftforthomastair @ddepressedbookworm @queenlilith43 @wagner-fell @cant-think-of-anything @laylax13s @tessherongraystairs @boredfangirl16 @artist-in-soul @bottomdelioncourt @ikissedsmithparker

#the ivory key #Akshaya Raman #a dark and hollow star #a cruel and fated light #ashley shuttleworth #the sunbearer trials #aiden thomas #a blade so black #a dream so dark #l.l. mckinney #the gilded ones #the merciless ones #namina forna #book recommendations #ongoing series

[annelisreadingroom]

Hi everyone, how are you? A lot has happened to me recently. I had to take on new responsibilities at work, and I suddenly had to move to a new apartment too. I had only two weeks to find a new place to stay, but I was lucky to find a nice studio in the city center.

#books #booklr #bookblogger #book photography #ya books #yalit #book photo #fantasy books #book flatlay #book and chocolate #the ivory key #diverse reads

[willmarstudios]

"When you battle ghosts, the living always lose."

"The Ivory Key" by Akshaya Raman

#bookworm will #book quote #quotes #the ivory key #ya

[illicthearts]

Go read the Ivory Key 🔪🔪🔪

#the ivory key

[ennasus15]

Next book on my reading list. It will be my second south asian inspired fantasy book. I hope it is good.

#the ivory key #fantasy book #im exicted #pretty cover

[idontnap]

I edited some covers and I thought that I would post them here in case anyone else wanted to use them for anything

#circe #the name of the wind #clap when you land #astonishing color of after #the hate u give #henna wars #on the come up #when the moon was ours #tash hearts tolstoy #the ivory key #book cover

[readinginmars]

"I feel like I'm fighting my mother's ghost. And it's not a fair fight."

"That's the thing about battling ghosts, Vira. The living always lose."

The Ivory Key - Akshaya Raman

#book quotes #bookblr #the ivory key #akshaya raman #p117

[dumdeedums-blog]

I just bought so many books today

#dum dee #bookshelf #little women #brando sando #rhythm of war #all our hidden gifts #the ivory key #almost bought a d&d set

[black-is-beautiful18]

I got Ring Shout and The Ivory Key

#ring shout #p. djèlí clark #the ivory key #akshaya raman #physical tbr #unique writes

[plantdad-dante]

Book #38 - The Ivory Key by Akshaya Raman

(note to self: check if a book has/will have a sequel and if so, maybe wait until said sequel is within reach before you read it)

I am so hungry for the other half of this story. It isn't even funny. I need to know what happens next!!

I need to know what Vira will do next, after all this sweet, sweet character development - after stepping out of all the shadows she had stood in and growing into her role as a leader. How will Riya end up reconciling her found family, her siblings and her magical powers with one another? How will Ronak's general life situation unfuck itself and will he finally learn how to balance his loner-type personality with the option of not being a dick? Will Kaleb find a life dream to strive for and fullfill? Will he finally find actual happiness?

I guess this is another Winter's Orbit situation, where I can't really do anything but gush about it. I just really really liked this book, okay?

Even Amrit is still cool with me, and I am sure he'll get a nice and cozy redemption arc and deliver some delicious new perspective on lore with all the secret society business.

And omg, the world building is fantastic, in all the best ways.

So, yeah, lots of love, lots of stewing in impatience for the next year or so.

#the ivory key #akshaya raman